Khokho Luxury Basket Bags Handwoven In Swaziland

Khokho is a luxury line of basket bags handwoven in Swaziland. The brand is the result of a collaboration between Philippa Thorne, Creative Director of Gone Rural and Sapna Shah, a handbag designer who was looking for a new challenge focusing on artisan crafts and smaller production.

Choosing the name Khokho, the Siswati word for great-grandmother, the collaboration started in 2014, with aim of creating a luxury product that would make use of the traditional weaving techniques whilst creating a new modern aesthetic.

“Traditional crafts don’t need to disappear. They can evolve and feel relevant within the luxury market. There are ways to design these products in a respectful, sustainable way.” Sapna Shah

Taking between 5-8 days to weave the basket bags are handwoven from naturally dyed Lutindzi grass, lined with either twill fabric or suede and are finished with dark brown locally sourced, vegetable tanned leather trims and a hand carved cow horn tip closure, all ethically sourced waste by-product.

To help develop the skills of the local artisans the Khokho drsign team enlisted the help of Italian master craftsman Carlo Bisceglia, formerly of Burberry and Marc Jacobs who runs an annual programme at the Khokho studios training local leather smith’s in the art of pattern-making, cutting and construction.